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Tag Archives | fracking

Fracking uses upwards of millions of gallons of water per well in ten of thousands of wells, often in the driest parts of the country. This is deranged. Short-term profits are being allowed to create long-term damage to water supplies and communities. The water used in fracking is mixed with various noxious and dangerous chemicals, poisoning aquifers, as well as depleting water supplies in areas already in drought or experiencing serious water problems.

Nearly half of the wells hydraulically fractured since 2011 were in regions with high or extremely high water stress and over 55 percent were in areas experiencing drought.

In Colorado and California, 97 and 96 percent of the wells, respectively, were in regions with high or extremely high water stress. In New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the majority of wells were in high or extremely high water stress regions. In Texas, which currently has the highest concentration of hydraulic fracturing activity in the U.S., more than half of the wells examined (52 percent) were in high or extremely high water stress regions.

Gosh, that sure sounds sustainable, doesn’t it?

The Ceres report provides a series of recommendations which include recycling of water used during fracking (a practice already becoming more commonplace among drillers); using wastewater or brackish water; disclosing more information, not only on water use from the company perspective, but also on water availability and requirements for the basin as a whole; and tougher regulations governing the use of water in dry regions.

Translation: Drillers have been using drinking water and lots of it for fracking and are now grudgingly using alternatives since the media is watching and there is a threat of more damned gummint regulation.

When you buy a new house, make sure the builder doesn’t retain the mineral rights, otherwise you might get fracked. In some states, builders do not have to disclose this and if they do, it may be buried deep within the contract.

Homeowners, once they find out they don’t own the earth under their feet, are typically not pleased. Many worry about the potential health and environmental effects of fracking.

Geothermal power plants product renewable energy 24/7. New techniques for getting at geothermal heat deep in the earth are similar to natural gas fracking, but is it as harmful? Altenergy Stocks looks at the issues in a level-headed, deatailed article.

Advocates for both natural gas and geothermal are up in arms over whether fracking for enhanced geothermal systems should be scrutinized with the same parameters as natural gas

Just because fracking debris was so radioactive that even a waste site didn’t want it is NO REASON to get alarmed and start whining like a girly man ecoterrorist that fracking could imperil water supplies or endanger human health. Really. Fracking is perfectly safe. The government and big business tells us so, therefore it must be true.

A truck carrying drill cuttings from a fracking site set off a radiation alarm at a landfill in Pennsylvania. Emitting gamma radiation ten times higher than the permitted level, the waste was rejected by the landfill.